The primary aim of this research is to develop an empirical model of the process by which couples make decisions regarding voluntary sterilization. A longitudinal research design will be employed by drawing upon baseline data collected from 610 couples who were in the early years of marriage in 1978 and re-interviewing the same couples in 1985. The collection of data from both wives and husbands and the use of a longitudinal design will provide us with a unique opportunity for the analysis of couple decisions regarding contraceptive sterilization. The major emphasis of the research will be on the social psychological antecedents of sterilization, although the longitudinal data will also be analyzed for possible psychosocial changes as consequences of contraceptive sterilization. The specific dependent variables will include actual sterilizations by wives and husbands, the timing of the sterilization operations relative to marital duration, childbearing, and other events in the marital career, the congruence between sterilization intentions in 1978 and subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, the choice of a male versus a female method, the resolution of ambivalence (or disagreements) in sterilization intentions that were reported separately by wives and husbands in 1978, and the extent and kinds of plans among wives, husbands, and couples for sterilizations in the future. Data on a broad range of theoretically relevant social psychological and motivational variables were collected from the sample of 610 couples in 1978, and will comprise the major independent variables as potential antecedents of sterilization, as well as being included among the dependent variables for the analysis of possible consequences. The characteristics of wives and husbands will be classified into (1) sociodemographic (e.g., education and occupation); (2) social psychological (e.g., social alienations, sex role orientations); (3) motivational (e.g., value of children, perceived disadvantages of contraception); and (4) informational (e.g., reproductive and contraceptive knowledge). The relative strength of wives' vis-a-vis husbands' characteristics will then be assessed in combination with such (5) couple characteristics as marital duration, parity, family income, fertility control problems, communication patterns, and plans for the future.